[Iptulmak: What it means to silence someone]

At the 2024 KAIST graduation ceremony, when a graduate who was criticizing the R&D budget cuts continued speaking during the President's congratulatory address, security personnel physically covered their mouth and dragged them out of the venue.
Since they actually covered the mouth, it was "Iptulmak" (silencing) in the literal sense.
When people are attacked for asking uncomfortable questions, held responsible for raising issues, and isolated from the organization for expressing different opinions, they eventually begin to self-censor.
Within such an organization, free conversation no longer occurs.
Questions disappear, criticism disappears, and ultimately, no one speaks up even about things that are wrong.
Silencing people weakens democracy and makes organizations sick.
Democracy does not begin with everyone having the same voice, but by guaranteeing that different voices can be heard.
And we are no longer living in an era where
silencing a voice makes it disappear.
In fact, the more you try to suppress it, the more people become curious, the more people talk, and the more voices continue to rise.
The era where speech disappears just because it is suppressed is over.
What is needed now is not the act of silencing mouths,
but the act of listening to why those voices were raised.